Our Flagpole Blown Over

<< Back to archives | Thursday, November 10, 2005

A heavy gust of wind snapped our 110-foot-tall cedar flagpole this morning at 8:10 am. It broke off at the base, tore down electrical wires and rolled down the slope to the sidewalk. No one was hurt. The above photo shows the wires still in the street as the police blocked traffic and waited for the Puget Sound crew.

The pole snapped into three pieces - plus the stump left in the ground - thus making it impossible to repair or reuse as a shorter pole.

Lennette Corwin, a Whidbey Island Bank VP, was just walking to work, crossing the street at the crosswalk up wind of the pole when it went down. She said there was no “bang” or noise of it breaking, just the flashes and pops as it took down the electrical wires over Finnegay Way.

The probable cause? Rot on one side of the pole. Here Arnie Larsen, one of the veterans who helped establish the pole in 1989, looks at the stump that shows the dark-colored dry rot and the light-colored good wood. Sad. No one suspected. No doubt we need some wood experts to examine this for a reliable analysis.

The future? I wonder if a celluar phone firm can construct a 100-foot pole. Could several cell phone companies imbed their antennas in the pole? Could we get WiFi Internet? That might be a better idea than cutting down another tall cedar tree from up on the Nooksack River, and it would not cost us. Well, those are just my musings. This will be discussed by many in Fairhaven over the next days and weeks. We will get a flagpole back up with Old Glory flying.

You can view the photos of the relocation of the flagpole in July, 2004. And our flag in better days - on a frosty day last January at sunset.

At New Location - 1307 11th

Across street from Skylarks. More seating, including outside tables. Now open for lunch every day except Mondays.

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